Set up a complex speed schedule, so you don't use up bandwidth when you need it for other things

Monitor and control your torrent downloads remotely, from any computer or mobile device

Label torrents for easy sorting

Drag and drop a file or group of files into uTorrent for quick sharing with friends

Rate and comment on torrent files for other users

Hide any features you don't care about to make the uTorrent interface as minimal as you like

Add features through the uTorrent App Studio

Automatically adjusts bandwidth usage so if you're making a Skype video call or downloading a file from the web you won't have to worry about uTorrent getting in the way

Many, many more advanced features and options to tweak it to your liking

Where It Excels

uTorrent does something few other apps can: it's incredibly feature-filled, while staying pretty simple and lightweight. It's perfect for novice and expert users alike, and you can tweak uTorrent to fit nearly any download routine. You can search directly on uTorrent or from your favorite torrent site, add RSS feeds for automatic downloading, or even share files with a simple drag and drop. uTorrent's automatic bandwidth management feature is also great, though if you prefer, you can run it on a schedule, so it uses more bandwidth at night (when you aren't using the computer) and less during the day. The ability to stream audio and video as it downloads is also a killer feature.

If you want to know why it's our pick, just open its preferences box—the insane number of checkboxes shows just how configurable uTorrent really is.

Where It Falls Short

There's very little wrong with uTorrent. If you are a
very advanced user, you might prefer something like Vuze, but for the vast majority of users, uTorrent has all the features they could ever need.

uTorrent is, however, owned by BitTorrent, meaning it's closed-source, contains ads, and comes bundled with crapware. That said, you can
remove the ads and avoid the crapware, but if you're opposed to such things on principle, you might want to look elsewhere.

uTorrent is a great app, but it can be annoying to have ads on your desktop apps. Fortunately,…
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The Competition

The closest competition uTorrent has is
qBittorrent, which aims to be an open source alternative. The two are quite similar, but uTorrent still has qBittorrent beat on sheer number of options. However, if uTorrent's ads, crapware, and genearl proprietary nature leave a bad taste in your mouth, qBittorrent is a fantastic alternative.

You can also download an
older version of uTorrent, before it got bought by BitTorrent, at sites like FileHippo. Version 2.2.1 was the last version before the acquisition, though it is banned on some trackers these days.

If you're looking for something simple (and cross-platform),
Deluge is another popular option. It doesn't measure up to the others in terms of features, and it isn't pretty, but it's got a pretty nice plugin system and an interface very similar to uTorrent's.

Vuze is a popular client for the more advanced crowd, offering more features than you'd ever know what to do with—which would be great, if it didn't make the app so much slower. If you want to tweak the inner workings of BitTorrent, or stream movies from BitTorrent to your TV, Vuze is worth checking out, but be prepared for a much heftier program than uTorrent.

Those are far from the only BitTorrent clients on Windows, but these days, the above choices should appeal to nearly any user looking to download large files. Do you have a favorite that we didn't mention? Share it with us in the comments.

Lifehacker's App Directory is a new and growing directory of recommendations for the best applications and tools in a number of given categories.